A song, a poem, some reviews, and other feminist bicycle science fiction updates

Yesterday was a big day: Two people, completely unrelatedly, sent us creative projects inspired by the Bikes in Space series.

More on those in a minute. First, a big news flash about the Kickstarter campaign for Bikes in Space 3, Pedal Zombies: We’re in some hot water here. With less than 5 days to go, we still have $2,600 to raise. That’s more than $500 per day. Can we do it? Honestly, I don’t know. But it’s important that we make it, especially because without this funding we cannot fairly pay the authors. So I’m going to give it my absolute all. I’ve already added a lot of creative, fun, one-off rewards to make it really easy to back and will continue adding more as the days go by. And I’m asking you all to back the project—even if just a small amount—and to help spread the word. *Thank you.*

And now, as promised, a poem.

This is by Ann L., the mother in law of one of our authors, who shared it with us yesterday morning. She has not previously been known to write poetry or ride bikes, but we can only hope this continues—it’s really quite wonderful.

Space Bike
I pedal as on a solar wind.
The sky, the stars, the moon
All smile down on my aging feet
We know where you are.
We know what you want.
To soar, to fly fearless on
This poor aging machine
broken pedals, loose chain
and yet to be one with the universe.
I pedal.

***

A poem, and then… a song!

Yesterday afternoon, as I was beginning to start to tear my hair out over this project, I received a Kickstarter message from backer Lorne Laliberte, who had somehow stumbled across the project and been inspired not just to back it, but to write the following song. He wrote that while it incorporated bicycles and zombies, he wasn’t sure if it qualified as feminist. I assured him that in my book, a song about a badass lady protecting you from zombies on her bicycle is feminist as all get out.

I asked him if he planned to record the song and he sent over a sound file a few hours later! Lyrics to follow Enjoy!

About Elly

Elly Blue has been getting around by bicycle since 1998, and writing about bicycle transportation since 2006. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her partner, dog, cat, and a large number of unusual bikes. When she isn't writing, she spends her time seeking out and publishing other peoples' work about different aspects of bicycling.